EDINBURGH (CWNews.com) - Scotland's eight Catholic bishops
have declared their support for Cardinal Thomas Winning
fight against the classroom promotion of homosexuality as a
valid lifestyle.

On Sunday, priests throughout the country will read a
message from the bishops warning that children will be left
vulnerable by scrapping of the Section 28 law and asking
churchgoers to pray for their Members of the Scottish
Parliament (MSPs) when they vote on the controversial
legislation.

The bishops' message reads: "To take away a law which
prohibits the promotion of homosexuality and replace it
with 'guidelines' risks leaving our children extremely
vulnerable to the message that a homosexual lifestyle is an
equally valid moral choice to marriage.

It continues: "We ask all people of good will to pray for
our legislators in their different tasks. We pray we can
build a Scotland of justice for all, free of bigotry and
intolerance but ever mindful of God's law and morality."

A spokesman for the Catholic Church told the Daily Record:
"It is a message of solidarity to show that it is not just
Cardinal Winning who is speaking on his own on this."

According to today's Universe newspaper, the British
government has turned to the Catholic Church for help in
sorting out the whole Section 28 row. Senior Labour MP
Stuart Bell told the Catholic media: "The debate in the
media, led by the churches, is killing this bill. So the
government has to be very wise and listen carefully to what
the churches have to say.

"A conscience is a conscience," Bell continued. "and you
cannot ask an MP to vote against their conscience. It would
be smart if Labour was to allow its Anglican and Catholic
MSPs to vote against it, rather than force them to either
vote against their conscience or abstain."

The National Board of Catholic Women and the Union of
Catholic Mothers have also joined the campaign against the
repeal of Section 28.